Giveaway Winner!

I loved reading all your comments about how you use your zipper pouches!  I definitely have some new ideas now – THANKS!!!!  I know it’s cliche, but I wish everyone could be a winner!  Here are the winners – there are two of you!!!
Winner #1 is Nettie who wrote, “I really love your little pouches! Great colors and fabrics. I use them for my essentials when traveling.”
Winner #2 is Polly who wrote, “I’d probably put all my sewing machine accessories in it…since my 18 month old LOVES to pull everything out of the little spot in my sewing machine that holds them.”
Thanks for entering!!

Amanda

Zipper Pouch Giveaway

I just can’t get enough of these little pouches…..well actually I can.  I am sewing 15 of these for my sister to give to her “Young Women” at church for their birthdays.  Yes, I am the best sister ever 🙂  Since I am making so many, I thought I would give one away!  All you have to do is leave a comment telling me what you use zipper pouches for.  I will announce the winner Tuesday morning, September 10th.  Click HERE for the link to the tutorial if you want to sew your own!  Good luck!!!

Amanda

Taylor Swift Concert!!!

We have been waiting for this concert for 9 months!  We got the tickets for Christmas!!  We decided to make RED tie dye shirts (surprised?).  Then we cut stencils out of vinyl and stenciled the shirts to personalize them.  They turned out cute!
This was really late at night with a houseful of company – like the messy kitchen!!

Of course we had to make a sign.  We do love Taylor’s cat Meredith – she is the cutest!

 Yes, we are cheesy!!

 Finally at the Staples Center!!!  I can’t tell you how excited we were!!!

 

 The concert was AMAZING!!!  In fact, it’s hard to put it into words.  I have been to a lot of concerts and this was the BEST CONCERT EVER!!!  We were so sad when it was over.

Amanda

Quilt Story!!

Today my Modern Monster Truck Quilt Tutorial is being featured on Quilt Story!!!  

Amanda

Summer Hoodie Tutorial

I came up with this project after buying a big bag of hoodie sweatshirts on sale.  I am always trying to think of creative gift ideas that don’t break the bank.  These are perfect!!   I like that they are summer colors: perfect to take to the beach, the lake, or for after swimming.  Here is how you can make your own!!
Purchase a zipper hoodie sweatshirt.  
Begin with the hood
Lay your fabric out, right sides together.  Lay your sweatshirt hood on top like this and trace 3/4 inches around the hood with a pencil.  For the face of the hood draw your line along the edge:

 Cut along the marked line.

Sew the curvy part of the hood using about 1/2 inch seam.
Trim little slits on the curvy part but don’t cut into your seam.  Press this seams to one side.
Now take the sides that are not sewn and press under 1/2 inch all the way around.
Pin the hood inside the hoodie matching seams.
Top stitch a narrow seam using matching thread.  Sew around the entire hood.
Make sure to use matching thread.
Super Cute!!
For the Pockets:
Find a piece of plastic from a file folder, plastic protector, or this was from a package of pillow cases.  You could also use tracing paper or pattern paper.  You need to be able to see through it.
Lay the plastic on top of the pocket.  You will be making a pattern for your pocket.  Every sweatshirt is totally different and the two pockets on the same sweatshirt can even be slightly different.  Trace the pocket how you want it to look finished.
Cut 1/4 inch around your pocket pattern
With fabric right sides together, pin the pocket pattern and cut.
Make a fet little cuts 1/4″ in along curvy side.  This will help it to lay flat.

 Press each side in 1/4″.  Do this for both pockets.

Pin your pocket piece to the pocket.  If things aren’t matching up how you want, you may need to make adjustments.

Top stitch the pocket piece using a narrow seam.  Leave pocket opening unstitched at this point.
To sew the pocket opening, I had to take my sewing platform off my machine.  It’s a tight squeeze but you can do it!

For the appliqué:
I like to add a little appliqué to the front.  I choose to do a strawberry since it matched the fabric.  I used Heat n Bond Lite from Therm o Web.  It’s my favorite fusible appliqué medium!!
Draw your image on the Heat n Bond:

Iron the pieces to the wrong side of your fabric:
Cut along the line:

Peel off the paper back and position on your sweatshirt.  Press, using a dry iron.

Stitch along your appliqué piece.  

 Ta Da!!!

Here are a few other sweatshirts I have made:

The navy whale sweatshirt is for me 🙂
I made 3 of these fishy ones for my daughter and her cousins that love Hawaii & fish.

This little girl one was for a birthday gift.
I just finished this one for my niece:

Amanda

Tie Dye Winner Announced

Thank you for your comments during my tie-dye week!  It was fun to hear from you which designs you liked the best.  The winner for the tie-dye giveaway by way of true random number generator is comment #9 – Mooy oh Mooy who likes the spirals the best!  THANKS!!!!


Amanda

Tie Dye Giveaway

I can’t believe Tie-Dye week is over.  It was so much fun.  I actually bought more tie-dye and white shirts today.  It’s just so much fun to make up different designs!  I am warning you – it’s addicting!!
To say thank you for stopping by my blog and following my Tie-Dye maddness, I am giving away this fun box of Tie-Dye goodies, curtoesy of Tulip Tie-Dye!!!  

Included in this box are the following items:
Ultimate Tulip One-Step Tie-Dye kit with 5 colors and 5 refills – that’s 20 shirts you can dye!!
Tulip Craft Gloves
Tulip Tie-Dye Resist
Tulip Shape Dotters
Tulip Craft Aprons
Tulip Sponge Pouncers

Just leave a comment letting me know your favorite tie-dye design.  I will post the winner Tuesday morning!!

Amanda

Bleach Dye Tutorial

Hi everyone- I’m Becky of Patchwork Posse. I am so excited to be joining forces with Amanda of Jedi Craft Girl and her tie dye shirt series. You can find me on my blog blabbing about embroidery stitches, hand applique techniques, and my all time favorite- my patchwork designs and patterns.
Tie Dye shirts are great for the summer. They are pre-made…the shirt at least allowing your personality and ideas to shine with the design and colors. A different technique for dyeing is to reverse dye or Bleach Dye.
You kind of are taking a chance with the color that your shirt will end up. A surprise even! Depending on the dye process the shirt went through in manufacturing- that will determine what color your shirt will be. Super fun to see what happens once the bleach hits the shirt.
summer day camp bleach tie dye shirt

How to Bleach Dye your shirt:

1) Purchase your shirts—-any color! For this process they really do need to be a color. I found a bunch at the dollar store {I know totally lucky, and they were Hanes brand too} that were this wierd kind of purple. Perfect for this project and the girls! 2) I didn’t prewash, but it took a lot longer for the bleach to work. Longer than I would have thought, so maybe you want to prewash to remove any kind of sizing and dye stuff they have going on when making them. 3) Fold, twist, scrunch, bundle– and then rubber band the shapes. Just like a typical tie dye method. Follow a few of the tutorials found in the Tie Dye Shirt Series. This is where the moms step in and finish it for them– the kids can go off and play. 4) Mix bleach and water, equal parts into a bucket {use gloves to protect your hands} 5) Stuff all banded shirts into bucket of bleach water bleach tie-dye
 6) Wait patiently. Keep an eye on those shirts. The color does take a bit to start changing from the origional to another color that is layered underneath when they are dying the fabric. We were thinking that this would take just a few minutes, but it ended up to take around 20 minutes or so and then we got real impatient and I sprinkled bleach on them. Yup, straight from the bottle. These weren’t cheap thin shirts so they totally handled it just fine. You do want to make sure that holes don’t appear. That is when you have let the bleach tie-dye stick around too long. 7) Remove the shirts, remove the rubber bands, throw into the washer for a wash and dry. bleach tie-dye tutorial / patchworkposse
 The dark purple is the original color. The lighter purple/pink is what the bleach tie-dye revealed. Super fun! Each shirt was totally different. I would recommend writing initials on the collar or tag so you can find whose is whose. {we did luckily!} Hope your shirts turn out perfectly wonderful! I love the idea of having everyone ‘matchy, matchy’ but still letting them have their own style and personality. Thanks for letting me share today and hope you stop on by and say hello….there’s always something spec-tac happening!

Amanda

Tie Dye Your Summer Video

My brother put together this video of our family Tie-Dye party.  We definitely look like crazy hippie people!!  I promise, we are really normal 🙂

Amanda

Monsters University Movie

Everyone had a great time at the movie.  Don’t you love the shirts!!  Some of our reviews were:
It was so funny!
It’s my new favorite movie!
I can’t wait to see it again!!

Amanda